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Monday, August 13, 2018

Trader Joe's Chocolate Chunk Cantuccini

As I'm offically entering the later part of my thirties, I'm learning more and more that adulthood is a series of learning to embrace and enjoy different shades and forms of bitterness. It's not exactly a bad thing. Like coffee, for instance. Or alcohol. Or, even, disappointment. Those are all cups from which I drink often.

I'm on a small disappointment streak with TJ's products, and Trader Joe's Chocolate Chunk Cantuccini are just a continuation of that trend. I can partially pin all this on me. The other night, while semi-listening to my lovely bride prattle on about her most recent TJ's trip, I heard her say "blahblahblah chocolate something-chini biscotti blahlblahblah" which my mind instantly, without though, translated into chocolate zucchini bread-inspired biscotti. Now that sounds intriguing and seasonally appropriate, and maybe something zany that ol' Joe would whip up. If you haven't had good zucchini bread ever, I don't know what to tell you.

So, imagine my disappointment when I popped one of these kinda Italian mini biscuits in my mouth...and tasted just a regular old chocolate chip biscotti. Except smaller.

Sigh.

Cantuccini is what I should have heard, not zucchini. Not familiar with the term? Me neither, but apparently it's an almost interchangable term with biscotti (i.e., biscuit), except cantucci are apparently more from Tuscany, and the -ini means they're smaller. Meh.

It's small chocolate chip biscotti. Nothing more, nothing less. Kinda almondy and earthy, with a vague sweetness, without quite the flavor of a full blown chocolate chip cookie...yup. No icing or any extras, with only a few small chocolate bits to vainly try to break the monotony. And they're smaller, making them less handy to dunk into coffee or tea or milk or anything. They also seem crunchier, maybe due to their condensed size. Sandy said they didn't seem to soften up when dunked either.

Blah. Disappointment. I really wanted to love these bitty biskies, but nope. There's nothing special about them, nothing to set them apart. In a word, they're boring. I'm disappointed. But I can embrace that, I guess, along with some coffee. Such is life. Matching twos from our house to yours.

Bottom line: Trader Joe's Chocolate Chunk Cantuccini: 4 out of 10 Golden Spoons 


5 comments:

  1. Dang! That is disappointing. If they did a cookie butter cantuccini then maybe it would be better

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  2. TJs already has a small chocolate chip biscotti- although i think it’s labeled as softer. And multiple varieties of large biscotti. I don’t get it myself.... are there really so many biscotti loving trader joe’s customers out there?? Personally i don’t like cookies that might break a tooth if they aren’t soggy- why are soggy cookies a good thing?
    Ttrockwood

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  3. Nope, you totally missed the mark on this. I found this post because I'm eating these addictive cookies and was curious to see what others thought of them. 8/10 easy.

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  4. I love these cantuccini. Unlike the softer varieties of TJ biscotti, which are meant to be eaten dry, these are meant to be dipped in your choice of liquid. (I like to dip them in coffee, which softens the chocolate, but I just read that the Tuscan tradition is to dip them in wine.) Three cookies total 110 Calories, so one is only 35 Calories.

    ReplyDelete

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